Ai Ai Gasa
by Shiy
Summary: Rain, two umbrellas, four Seigaku regulars. It works out. (mild shounen-ai warning)


**Title:** Ai-Ai Gasa (1)  
**Pairing(s):** The only intended one is Okiku  
**Rating:** PG  
**Warning(s):** Unbeta-ed. Unnecessary use of Japanese.  
**Started:** 4 April 14.46

By late afternoon, the light drizzle that has been occurring all day has developed into a heavy rain. The few remaining students at Seishun Gakuen were full of complaints. One Kikumaru Eiji, in particular, was explaining in great details to his classmate and friend what a damper the rain was as they walked down the stairs to the exit.

Fuji just smiled and listened while shaking out his umbrella. He even waited till Eiji paused for breath to draw his attention to a familiar figure near the lockers with a nod in that direction.

"Oishi!" the redhead wasted no time in calling out to his doubles partner before bounding over.

Their vice-captain turned with a smile, having identified the voice before even looking. "Eiji. Fuji. Going home only now?"

Fuji just smiled and let Eiji rattle off but how _unfair_ it was that they had to do class duty today just because someone requested to swap then added politely, "What about you, Oishi? Class committee kept you?"

"Yeah, we had a meeting today. What with the school festival coming up and all--" Oishi was looking over Eiji's shoulder now. "The student council's meeting must have just ended too."

"Wha--?" Eiji spun around and jumped at finding their captain just several steps behind him and closing in. Tezuka only nodded at them.

"Going home, Tezuka?" Fuji questioned, as if having his teammate clinging to his sleeve was a daily occurrence— which, all things considered, might actually be fairly accurate. He received another nod for his trouble. The genius just smiled, unperturbed by the lack of verbal response. When Tezuka turned to leave, he decided to catch up and harass him with some more meaningless questions. After all, Oishi was there to keep Eiji company.

They were nearing the exit of the school and Fuji hadn't been ordered any laps yet. So the tensai had time to survey their little group and comment, "Didn't anyone else bring an umbrella?"

Tezuka didn't deign to answer, which was no surprise. Eiji just looked blankly at him, obviously disorientated by the abrupt question. Not that Fuji was expecting Eiji's answer when he asked the question. He drew his eyes to the taller boy, carefully adding polite curiousity into his smile. After all, it was simply abnormal if Oishi forgets his umbrella, whatever the season.

When their vice-captain told them, very apologetically, that he had lent his umbrella to his class secretary, no one knew what to say for a moment.

Then Eiji, looking like he just remembered something, asked, "What about the one you keep in the clubhouse?"

"Ah, Momo borrowed it from me yesterday. I don't think he remembered to return it yet."

The silence that followed this piece of information was even longer than the last, such that the gentle 15-yr old looked even more apologetic by the second, until Eiji, looking somewhere between incredulous and aghast, burst out, "_OISHI!_ You can't just lend your last umbrella to someone else! What about yourself! What are you? An umbrella loaner?" He even placed his hands on his hips for emphasis.

Fuji hid a chuckle at how indignant Eiji sounded, and how apologetic Oishi was being, when he had no reason to, in actuality. "Saa, let's go, Eiji." Tezuka was already walking, looking like he had all intentions of braving the rain. "Maybe if we're lucky, both captains will call in sick tomorrow." He noted the slight stiffening of the departing taller boy's shoulders and mentally gave himself another point.

"Oi, oi…" Behind him, Oishi was protesting weakly, "Fuji. That's not ni— eh? Eiji--? Oi--"

When Fuji turned, Eiji was slamming his locker shut and sprinting back with a triumphant grin. The reason was in his right hand, a bright red umbrella that seems to scream defiance at the dreary grey rain.

"Kikumaru-sama, to the rescue!" He reached them and struck a pose— with his favourite victory sign— while snapping open his umbrella with a flourish, so that Oishi dodged desperately to save his eyes from being poked out. Only Fuji saw Oishi's trouble and he only chuckled at the scene. Oishi just sighed and gave up trying to admonish Eiji, who was in his own Kikumaru-sama-world by now.

Fuji smiled at the familiarity of it all and by speeding up his steps slightly, caught up with Tezuka just before he stepped out into the rain and saved him from the possible fate of pneumonia. The captain looked at the unexpected umbrella above him, then at Fuji, then behind him when Fuji did not offer him any sort of answer. The scene was pretty self-explanatory in itself so he said nothing and accepted the tensai's wordless offer in silent gratitude.

Eiji shook out his umbrella one last time and held it between Oishi and himself. Almost simultaneously Oishi reached out and made to take over the umbrella, and Eiji tilted the umbrella in his direction in response to his unasked question. Oishi then clenched his right fist over the base of the umbrella, close to where Eiji's own left hand lingered briefly before letting go.

Ahead of them, Tezuka had turned and spoken briefly to Fuji, who smiled, and their umbrella was changing hands too.

The acrobatic tennis player clasped his hands behind his head and began to saunter, all the while chiding Oishi for entrusting _Momo_ to remember to return what he borrowed, to which Oishi just smiled at. Every now and then something on the road will catch his attention and he would pause or move off the path for a closer look, heedless of his partner's efforts to keep up with his movements and keep him sheltered from the rain. When he did notice that half of Oishi's left shoulder was moist with rain, he stopped wandering around and moved in closer. When after a moment the umbrella didn't budge, Eiji pointedly moved a bit more to the left. Only after a moment's pause did the umbrella shifted a bit more to the left. So Eiji persisted in squeezing to the left until the umbrella moved to a position he was more or less satisfied with, and resisted from moving to all the interesting things he caught sight of.

He managed to stay that way—with great difficulty—till they reached the bus stop, where Tezuka handed Fuji his umbrella and boarded his bus after nodding goodbye to them. Eiji was complaining about having to stand in the rain because the bus stop was full of other people while Oishi was trying discreetly to get him to lower his voice in case he offended someone.

They were surprised when a red car drove up and stopped before them, and Fuji Yumiko was offering them a lift. Oishi had declined repeatedly since his house was out of the way and he didn't want to inconvenience them, so Eiji had—after sufficient persuading and subsequent pouting—told him to take his umbrella, ducked under Fuji's, and boarded the car together with Fuji.

-Omake-

The next day was clear, and Oishi returned Eiji his umbrella during morning practice. To which Eiji had blinked at, then pounced on Momo demanding that he returned Oishi's umbrella _right away_. The junior had looked bewilderedly from one senpai to the other before promising that he would bring it to practice that afternoon, and would Eiji-senpai please get off him now?

At afternoon practice Momo was reportedly seen to have reached the courts on time, then promptly ran away before returning with an umbrella.

The two Regulars from 3-6 were sent on 20 laps for being 5 minutes late to practice. Fuji commented on their 10th lap that they should have let their captains catch pneumonia after all. Eiji had laughed but said nothing, so the brunette amended that he meant 'captain'.

**Completed: **14 April 12.35

(1) Ai-Ai Gasa: Literally means "love-love umbrella". Common symbol of romance in Japan culture.


End file.
